Bet you the Range will be in the shop more than your 3. Range looks nice though.

Nah... It might be in my driveway with a tool box next to it more often but they are actually not to bad to work on and the reputation, while certainly somewhat deserved, is a little over the top. Reason being, many owners of these cars (especially given the price tag of them when new) have zero interest in doing anything themselves. Also, with the massive amount of online vendors reselling old parts for them, it's not too hard to get your hands on stuff nor will you pay all that much for them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kaput

Someone is in the Green...

very true. For this car, I felt I had to. Just such a classy color combo

Quote:

Originally Posted by jmcdolej

Looks like big bro and little bro. Your 3 is so clean. You should make the Range a little meaner. Add some tough 20s with good rubber, a tint.

Yeah I'm trying to decide on where to go with wheels and tint. It's something that won't be done for a while anyway but I'm considering buying range rover sport wheels for it. There are tons of RRS owners who throw on aftermarket rims and sell their oem wheels/tires... I'd rather go with an OEM style on this car... not a fan of the typical suv aftermarket rims.

Quote:

Quote:

Originally Posted by VillanovaGrad

whats the reliability on the old ranges?
air suspension is a turn off on its own... MB and land rover never really mastered it
but it does look like a nice truck man. the interior looks pretty pristine
was it used as daily by the previous owner?

Quote:

Originally Posted by 04yfz

Air suspension is great, heave you driven or been in an S550? I agree that the S500 before it had a lot of issues with it, but the ride is unbelievable.

Great points 04yfz. The air suspension rides unbelieably well, especially considering it's a pretty massive truck. It's incredibly nice for both city, highway, and off roading as there are unique settings for each of these. It also has an "access mode" so that, when in park, you hit a button and the car lowers itself down to the lowest setting so chicks can get in .. all controlled right from the dash

Quote:

Originally Posted by VillanovaGrad

ride is unreal when it actually works... but when it breaks... prepared to sell your kidney.
from reading mbforums and such, to get 1 air shock is like $5000-8000...
you can have half of las vegas hookers plus a bag of blow for that money!

Ahhh. A perfect exaggeration and the precise language that gives these cars the price point (which I'll touch upon later) that they are in.

The EAS (electronic air suspension) was dubbed by Jeremy Clarkson to be "ingenious engineering". It provides incredibly comfortable, capable rides and allows the car to act as rugged or luxuriously as requested by the owner at a given point in time. The system consists of three basic components:

- Compressor (pulls in air, compresses it, and passes it along)
- Valve block (responsible for taking compressed air and distributing it to the springs)
- Air springs (act like a shock and spring entirely using air compression)

The valve block and compressor have average life spans of roughly 75-125k miles. The springs will last roughly that long though they should be checked more routinely.

Now, what normally happens is somewhere towards the end of the lifespan of the springs (shown below), the rubber starts to get slight cracks or splinters and air will start slowly leaking out. As there is a ton of pressure, even a very small slit will lose air somewhat quickly. This will be obvious to an individual paying even a little bit of attention but to those who just get in and drive, they don't notice. As they drive more and more, the hole gets larger and larger to the point the car can no longer inflate the car up on the spring and it goes into limp mode. Then they take it in.

Now, depending on how long the leak has been building, they also run the problem of damaging the compressor. After all, the compressor is working it's ass off to continually inflate the spring as it loses air. Now, around this point, all four springs are probably close to their end anyway so the dealer will suggest replacing the springs (cost around 125 online but will run 200-300 at the dealer) and will suggest a new compressor 500) and valve block (1000). Then you have installation and this, while rather easy, is time consuming. So now you have a several thousand dollar repair.

That said, if you pay attention, replace the springs when they are going, and don't kill your compressor/valve block, it's not a big deal. The rear springs and compressor were replaced within the last 3 weeks and I'm going to put new springs on the front as they are maybe 80% through the life span... I'd rather take care of it now to not strain the other components.

But this is a perfect microcosm of why even the educated auto world hates these cars... they hear a horror story from someone who was told by a rich mom that a suspension cost 5 grand and they shy away for life..

Now, that doesn't mean that it won't have issues.. it will. But, as long as you tend to the major components (EAS being one of them) it's not bad.

Quote:

Originally Posted by autothug

You are really a tru...

Quote:

Originally Posted by DylloS

calling your cars transformers must do wonders for you love life.

I'm dating Megan Fox and she finds it hot ... She loves it when I pull out Megatron

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Originally Posted by trizzuth

nice pick up man!! i could use one of those myself! if you don't mind asking, what did you pay for it?

Well, this is a tricky question. If you look at P38s (1995-2002) rovers, the pricing will vary from 4-14 (maybe even higher). The KBB on my car is actually up around 17 but the sellers can never get even close to those numbers because of the reputation (as displayed above).

But, there is the cost of purchasing and then the expected cost of ownership. For me, I was looking at the first 12 months. During that time, the car will need between 1500-3000 in repairs to ensure that it's nice and happy... Could use up to maybe 5k if I want to truly take care of every component. I paid 6500 for the car. In short, it's about a 10k vehicle. The trouble with them is that anyone who knows what they are doing will have invested good money keeping it in great shape and will want to sell it for that... those who took crap care of them want nothing but you have zero idea what you're getting into financially.

I was lucky enough to buy from a RR fanatic and also to find another RR fanatic in the local area who went with me and fully examined the truck. If you're serious about them, go to Rangerovers.net and try and get a local guy to give the car you're interested in a once over. There are major check list items you want to investigate.

For me though, it came down to... do I want a luxurious car that will require tinkering or do I want a trouble free 4Runner... the charm, character, and fun involved with caring for it had this leaps and bounds over the toyota.

It's a cult car and I'm already hooked.

Quote:

Originally Posted by yousharenow

nice pickup, but I just can't get past those older body styles

I LOVE the P38 body style. I'm not a huge fan of the country (the prior body style) as it's far too minimalistic... but I find the newer rovers 2003+ to be too soccer mom for my tastes. The P38 works for a soccer mom but still has that manly rugged look to it (or at least that's my two cents on it).